AGGREGATE INDUSTRY WOES IN PUSLINCH (& Elsewhere)

Leah Gerber has written another excellent environmental story in the Waterloo Region Record last week. It is titled "Environmentalists want aggregate companies to act responsibly in Puslinch Township". Now of course the head cheese of the Ontario, Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, Norm Cheesman, was also interviewed and as normal for a lobbying group, sings the praises of the aggregate industry. Mostly it's self-serving nonsense however. I particularly enjoyed the claim that "The majority of the township haul roads being used by aggregate trucks were paid for and built by the aggregate companies at no cost to the taxpayers". So are we to believe that the gravel pits came first and Township roads were built later. Bullcrap. Possibly the haul roads on the privately owned gravel pit property were built by the aggregate companies but the public roads that the loaded gravel trucks use, certainly were not. ....................................................................................................................... The latest concern of local residents is the sale of the Lake Family farm property that runs along Mill Creek. That creek has had a couple of very bad years with the spill of aviation fuel into the creek near the 401 highway a couple of years ago. A Zone Change request wiil go to Puslinch Council some time this coming spring. As Woolwich Township and many others have learned the hard way, it is rare for political defeats at councils to actually stop proposed aggregate operations in their tracks. They are like zombies that never die no matter how much truth inflicted damage they sustain to their credibility or to the viability of the operation. ........................................................................................................... The most recent example here in Woolwich is the recently approved Jigs Hollow Pit expansion to a below water table gravel pit, right beside the Grand River. outside of Winterbourne.